Rudolf Hess

Rudolf Hess (1894-1987) was one of the early core members of the Nazi Party, originally a close aide to Adolf Hitler who transcribed the first draft of Mein Kampf, but lost influence as the party took control of the government. While he held the title of Deputy Fuehrer, he lost influence, especially to Martin Bormann. In 1941, he made an unauthorized, still not fully explained flight to Great Britain to seek a peace agreement but was interned. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Trial of the Major War Criminals and was the last prisoner in Spandau Prison, probably committing suicide.

Early life and influences

Serving in World War I as a pilot, afterwards, he became a university student in Munich, and was extremely interested in the geopolitical theories of Karl Haushofer. He joined the Freikorps of Franz Ritter von Epp, and engaged in combat against radicals.

On the mystic and pan-German nationalism side, he was a member of the Thule Society, along with other early Nazis such as Alfred Rosenberg and Anton Drexler. Originally a purely occult spawned the German Workers' Party, the ancestor of the Nazi Party.

Flight to UK

He took of at 5:45 PM local time from the Messerchmitt company airfield in Augsburg. Hitler learned of the flight on the evening of 10 May 1941.

When making inventory of his personal effects, the British discovered he had brought an extensive range of conventional and homeopathic remedies. The Medical Research Council observed that if he "knew the action of all the drugs he carried, he had obviously missed his vocation and ought to have made a very handy practitioner...this reliance on allopathy for real body ailments and his further belief in homeopathy for other discomforts seems to represent a curious outlook on medical science."

Franz Pfeffer von Salamon had been on his staff. Hitler became angry with Pfeffer after Hess' May 1941 flight to England, and briefly imprisoned him. Pfeffer was expelled from the Reichstag, the Party, and all offices on 14 November 1941. He lived, in retirement, on his estate in Pomerania.